D stands for “Be Dependable and responsible at all times.”

February 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Pet sitters are counted on to provide pet care services at an excellent level at all times. Being a dependable pet sitter means you are capable, reliable, responsible, steady, tried and true, and trustworthy. 

Each pet owner is looking to find a pet sitter with the character needed to perform excellent service for the pet family and the home. How do you decide if the pet sitter is the one for you? 

Guardian Pet Sitters® looks for a person who is much more than a pet lover. Being a pet lover is a MUST when taking care of pets. We believe that is the starting foundation to build upon. Early in my experience I got the “awakening” that taking care of my own pets did not qualify me as a pet sitter. During the 19 years Guardian Pet Sitters® has been in business, I have continued learning more about pets and pet related issues. This allows me to educate those who work for us and helps our clients with their pet’s needs. 

Most articles you read about how to select a pet sitter associate the credentials of the business with the qualities of a pet sitter. Some of the things you would want to know about a business:

  • A business should be bonded and insured.
  • The business has a service agreement that spells out what is expected and gives the necessary information needed to provide service.  
  • The business has policies in place that insure your pet’s care would not be compromised.
  • A business follows the laws that pertain to the business.
  • The business has office hours and a system for you to contact the office when needed.
  • The business offers their staff on-going training to keep them knowledgeable in pet care and other aspects of in home pet care. 
  • The business is a member of professional organizations and has advisors they work with to keep the business on track.
  • The business is about customer service and will put doing what is right for the customer and their pets over making money. 

 Some of the things you want to think about when you select your pet sitter: 

  • A pet sitter finds pleasure in caring for pets-petting-playing and nurturing and most of all providing them TLC.
  • A pet sitter must be trustworthy, have excellent judgment and be self motivated and disciplined.
  • A pet sitter needs great organizational skills and can think fast when faced with an emergency.
  • A pet sitter must be in good health.
  • A pet sitter should be more concerned about what is best for the pet and the pet owner over their own agenda. That would include being able to put the pet owner and pets’ needs over their own.
  • A pet sitter should be engaged in on-going training and open to learning more about their chosen profession. They must have the time to continue their learning.

 There is much more one needs to know in finding the right company and pet sitter.  Deciding what the best avenue is to meet your pet care needs is a serious process. 

Guardian Pet Sitters® takes providing pet care service seriously and has 19 years of selecting pet care providers and running a business concerned about customer service. What we have learned and practice is what makes us “dependable and responsible”. We do have the solutions to your pet care needs. 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Business, Pet Sitting Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Teamwork Makes Great Pet Sitters!

January 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

  

For the past few months I have gotten away from talking about the letters in our name and what they mean to us. It is time to start again! R stands for respect and work as a team with my fellow professional pet sitters. 

Teamwork is the foundation of our company and gives us the ability to give quality pet care. At Guardian Pet Sitters® working as a team means we can ALWAYS have pet care coverage for our clients without compromising another client’s pet care. When you are a one person operation and a client has an emergency and needs pet care service you might not be able to provide the coverage if you are already booked or away on a scheduled vacation. Those who say yes and the schedule is already full must find a way to get everyone cared for in the same amount of time. What does that mean for the clients that already have pet care scheduled? 

At Guardian Pet Sitters® our team of professional pet sitters shows their respect to each other by helping each other when needed. They show respect to the clients by wanting to help the client when needed especially in an emergency. The management respects the client by having top-notch professional pet sitters available when a client needs pet care service and shows respect to the pet sitters by not overbooking them and having backup coverage. We don’t think other clients and their pets should be affected when there is an emergency. 

The team at Guardian Pet Sitters® shows respect to the pet sitters in our industry by setting high standards for ourselves and making sure that we do our best to present a positive professional image of our industry. 

Respect is something you earn from others and we at Guardian Pet Sitters® will continue to provide the highest level of pet care service to earn respect from our clients and those who are in our industry.

Filed Under: Business, Pet Sitting Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Who Do You Have Available For Your Pets In An Emergency?

January 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The New Year has begun and this is our first blog of the year! Guardian Pet Sitters® is excited about 2011! The start of the year has been a time of reflecting back to “why” Guardian Pet Sitters was started 19 years ago. My feisty Shih Tzu named Precious, who would not settle for anything less than the best, had the best care that was possible. You might say she was a little spoiled! I wanted other pet owners and their pets to have what I had for Precious. Precious has been gone for 9 years but lives on in my heart. She will always be the reason for Guardian Pet Sitters®.   Our company is structured with a team foundation. This enables us to offer clients consistent quality pet care and to be available when our services are needed.

Have you ever wondered who would provide care for your pets?

If you suddenly became ill and were rushed to the hospital

If you had surgery and could not provide the everyday care for your pets such as exercising the dog or cleaning the litter box

If you had a family emergency (illness or death) and had to leave town suddenly

If your pet was recovering from surgery or illness and needed to be checked on during the day

Clients of Guardian Pet Sitters® have pet care available when needed!

This year we have a lot we want to do to help our pet community. You can look forward to many things from educational information to new services. Let us know how we can help you with your pet care needs.

We are excited about the opportunities in 2011 and are looking forward to helping our pet companions!

Sharon and the Guardian Pet Sitters® team

Filed Under: Business, Pet Sitting Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In Home Pet Care is a Personal Service!

November 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In home pet care is a personal service!

Guardian Pet Sitters® provides a personal service to pet owners. Due to the fact that our service takes place in the home of our clients, our business calls for extra caution on how we treat our clients’ information. Our clients are very important to us! We understand the trust they give to Guardian Pet Sitters® in providing our service to care for their furry or feather friends and home. That is why the A in our name stands for ANONYMOUS! We don’t sell or give out our clients’ name, address, e-mails or phone numbers.

We value our relationship with our clients and understand their need for privacy. There are several ways we protect that privacy. Our pet sitters sign a confidentiality form agreeing not to discuss our clients’ information with anyone other than associates of our company. We will not give out a reference unless we have permission from the client. We do not advertise on pet sitters’ cars that are visiting homes to provide our service. Our pet sitters do not wear any apparel with our company’s advertising. We do not allow anyone but our pet sitter to enter the home. When we are networking we do not use our clients for referrals. While all of these might be a great way to advertise our company, our client’s privacy is more important to us.

Guardian Pet Sitters® wants the pet owners who use our service to have the assurance they can trust us! Our goal is to provide the BEST in-home pet care with the highest standards.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Commitment of being a professional pet sitter

October 28, 2010 By 1 Comment

The U of our name is UPHOLD the commitment of being professional and giving excellent client/animal service. Guardian Pet Sitters® shows professionalism in many ways. We are building our company to provide excellent service to our clients and pet sitters. We are constantly looking at ways we can enhance our company! 

The commitment of being a professional is of utmost importance to us. We think it starts in our people. We look for people who have a serving heart, who are reliable, honest, able to work on their own, who want to learn and grow, and of course a LOVE for animals. We offer our pet sitters an in-house certification program to enhance their knowledge and skills. We cover various topics from different types of animals, illnesses, and behavior to security and customer service training. We want our pet sitters to be knowledgeable and ready for anything they may encounter while pet sitting! 

We show our professionalism in the setup of the company and our backup system. Life happens even to pet sitters! We can get sick, have family emergencies, have car wrecks etc. and if life happens our structure allows us to continue our service without compromising the service. We know those who are operating on their own have to rely upon family, friends or another pet sitter operating on their own for back up. We are not sure how that works if the pet sitter is in a car wreck and critical, does the family want to be pet sitting and not at the bedside? Or how does another pet sitter add more visits to an already booked schedule? At Guardian Pet Sitters® our backup system comprises of having two or more pet sitters in an area. In addition, if the pet sitters are not able to step in we have our Director of Operations and if needed the owner. You can say we have our clients well covered! 

How do we give excellent client/animal service? For our “human” clients treating each and every visit as if it is the last we are doing before they return. For our furry and feather friends it is spending time, providing for all the necessary needs of the pet but also to play, give love and attention.  How can we accomplish this?  We don’t overbook our pet sitters and we allow the TIME needed to do each visit.

We value our clients and pet sitters that is why we have built our company on professionalism and excellent service.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Recipe for “Quality” Care When Using In-Home Pet Sitting

October 13, 2010 By 1 Comment

A Recipe for “Quality” Care When Using In-Home Pet Sitting

For the next several weeks we are going to talk about the goals Guardian Pet Sitters spelled out in “Does A Name Really Mean Something?” We will start with the letter G which stands for “Give Quality Care to Pets.”

Today in the pet sitting business everyone talks about offering quality pet care. We have learned there are various meanings for the word “quality” for those of us in the in-home pet sitting business. Some pet sitters believe that belonging to a professional organization (NAPPS, PSI, APSE etc.) or being bonded and insured provides quality. Others believe that offering various services such as bathing, toe nail trims, selling home-made biscuits, transportation and house security shows they are quality sitters. Still others believe that by having a website, business cards, and hanging out your shingle and calling yourself a business means you give quality care.

Yes, these features are needed when you have a business that offers in home pet sitting. However we believe it does not say you offer “quality” service.

Guardian Pet Sitters believes that “quality” means you spend time with the pet and work to get to know the pet in your care. In order to offer the type of service we consider to be “quality” we believe TIME is very important. To provide “quality” service we do not have our pet sitters rushing from house to house. For example a home with four pets is scheduled more time than a home with one pet. Yes, you pay more because of the extra time but your pets are getting the time necessary to give them attention. The attention the pet gets is what reduces their stress when you are away. We believe the recipe for quality pet care is to have informed pet care providers who enjoy taking care of pets and who are allocated the time needed to spend with the pets.

Another aspect of Guardian Pet Sitters is the model of our company. We have learned from the past that trying to wear all the hats of a business is not wise if you want to do things with excellence. While today multi-tasking is a way of life, it is also a hindrance. Guardian Pet Sitters is built for each person to utilize their talents in the assignment they do. Our pet sitters are not dealing with various aspects of running a pet sitting business, so they can focus on each pet visit while the operations of the business are handled by the staff in the office. We think this is another important ingredient to the recipe of “quality”.   

If you are looking for a pet sitter ask how much time they spend in the home per visit and how many visits a day they are typically doing. Remember TIME is needed to pay attention to the pets. We believe that our service is much more than feeding, watering and scooping litter boxes; it is about building a relationship with the pet.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Does A Name Really Mean Something?

September 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

We at Guardian Pet Sitters® believe that a name really does mean something. When we first began in 1992 we thought about why we were starting the company and what our role would be with our clients and the community. We think that our history shows how important a “name” really is.

Look at the meaning of the name “Guardian”: to protect, guard, watch over, and be the custodian. When you look up the word “custodian” in the thesaurus one of the meanings is “animal keeper” . Guardian Pet Sitters® provides your pet and home with security. We protect them by watching over and providing attention, love and detailed services when you are not available. We are custodians-we have the care of your pets and property as our assignment.

Guardian Pet Sitters® is built to last! We want our company and the services we offer to be available for future generations. We have built our company on a foundation that has withstood many obstacles. Throughout our eighteen years in business we have seen other colleagues close their doors because of these obstacles.

We believe our foundation is all in the name!

G GIVE quality care to pets.
U UPHOLD the commitment of being a professional and giving excellent client/animal service.
A Keep the clients’ name, address, e-mails and phone numbers ANONYMOUS.
R RESPECT and work as a team with my fellow professional pet sitters.
D BE DEPENDABLE and responsible at all times.
I Conduct business with INTEGRITY and honesty.
A Strengthen your ABILITY through on-going training (Pet Related Seminars, Public Lectures, Videos, Volunteer Work, In-House Certification Program, Reading and Internet Resources.
N It is a NEVER-ENDING responsibility to be thorough, conscientious and helpful to our clients, always going that extra mile to make them satisfied!
Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Newer Posts »